


various unfinished works

by orphan_account



Category: HINAPIA (Band), LOONA (Korea Band), Oh My Girl (Band), PRISTIN (Band), TWICE (Band)
Genre: F/F, i dont feel like tagging everything but the chapters contain notes, no warnings apply to any of these
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:40:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27478933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: i'm not going to be writing for kpop anymore but i wanted to clear out my google drive and i have a lot of drafts that are collecting dust, so i figured i might as well post the ones i deem acceptable.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	1. loona

**Author's Note:**

> because most of these are pretty short, instead of getting their own individual chapters they're sorted by group. the individual story titles are whatever i named the doc i wrote them on

**a whisper to a roar**

_mythology au (?), bvndit cameos, last edit march 26_

“I’ve been thinking,” Jungeun says, taking a bite of her sandwich.

“Nothing good has ever started with that sentence,” Jungwoo tells her, “but carry on.”

Jungeun resists the temptation to hit her best friend. “Okay, so I need money, right?”

“Just get a job,” Jungwoo says through a sip of tea. “It’s not that hard.”

Jungeun continues, ignoring her. “And I have connections. And I’m long lived. And I’m pretty- would you say I’m pretty?”

The friends are sitting in a coffee shop facing the sea, but instead of staring at the crashing waves outside, Jungwoo seems to only have eyes for the barista. “Not as pretty as,” Jungwoo squints, “Songhee, but sure.”

Jungeun rolls her eyes. “Whatever. Who else is long lived, needs connections to get to, and wants someone pretty? And can pay me?”

“This isn’t a trivia show, Jungeun,” Jungwoo says. “Just tell me.”

Jungeun sighs. “Well… do you think goddesses pay their consorts?”

Jungwoo blinks. “Basically, you want an immortal sugar mommy.” She opens her mouth to protest, but her friend shushes her. “Instead of a girlfriend and a job like a normal person.”

“Yes,” Jungeun says, defeated.

“This is a terrible idea; please proceed, it’ll be hilarious,” Jungwoo says. “Just don’t fuck my mom.”

“ _ Jungwoo!” _ Jungeun cries, reaching across the table to hit her friend; she only laughs and dodges.

-

Jungwoo’s mother Jiwoo, the goddess of singing, lives with her wife in a mansion near the gates to the palace. Jungeun has nice enough clothing to fit in- courtesy of being blessed and long lived and etc- but she still feels out of place. This is where minor deities live; not rich enough for her plan, but powerful enough to kick her into next week.

Knocking on the door, Jungeun waits to be let in. Hopefully at least one of her friend’s parents is home. She’s rewarded when Jiwoo opens the door, gasping comically when she sees Jungeun. “Oh, do come in! It’s been forever.” The goddess ushers her into their parlor, snapping her fingers and producing cups of tea and cookies. 

It hasn’t been forever, but Jungeun won’t tell Jiwoo that; she’s always had a soft spot for her. “Thank you,” she says instead, taking a cup although she’d just been to a coffee shop.

“I got these over in the isles of Albion the other day,” Jiwoo says excitedly. “High tea is all the rage there. Although I assume that isn’t why you’ve come?”

“No,” says Jungeun, taking a sip. The tea is bitter; Jiwoo is not the goddess of cooking. “I was wondering…” She pauses, unsure of the best way to accomplish this. She could always just tell Jiwoo, but she doesn’t want to be babied or mocked; maybe if she gets into the palace she could just attract someone. “I wanted to get into the palace,” she finishes uncertainly. “I’m curious.”

Jiwoo tilts her head. “Can’t you get in on your own? It’s open for tourism, I think.”

Jungeun frowns. “No, the- the heavenly palace,” she says hesitantly. The deities’ palace on earth is nice and all, but nobody lives there; it’s just a pretty figurehead for mortals to gawk at and she knows it. 

“Why?” Jiwoo says. “You know mortals aren’t allowed there without an excuse.” 

Scrambling desperately for an answer, Jungeun says, “I wanted to- see the deity who blessed me and ask them why. I don’t-”

Jiwoo’s face softens; she pats Jungeun on the head. “Of course,” she says, “I’ll get you in. Poor baby.” 

Jungeun dodges Jiwoo’s attempt at squishing her cheeks and smiles guiltily. “Thank you,” she says. “I really appreciate it.”

-

When Jungeun had been a baby, her mother had taken her to the steps of a shrine and prayed. The particular deity who owned the shrine hated babies, but her mother didn’t have anywhere else to bring her; instead of kicking them out, the deity had taken pity on Jungeun and (according to Jiwoo) her “cute squishy baby cheekies” and granted Jungeun the gift of extra life. It didn’t help them get money and it had been particularly difficult to outlive her mother and siblings, but it had been generous nonetheless. In a small corner of her mind, Jungeun couldn’t help but wonder how long the gift would list. Would she run out of life someday and collapse in a pile of hundred-year-old bones? Would she stay alive forever?

She didn’t know and she didn’t particularly want to find out.

**love is just a game**

_i don't know what's going on here. idol au? i guess? last edit february 17_

The interviewer is a woman much taller than even Sooyoung, pretty enough yet too sensible-looking to be an idol herself. She seats them on an uncomfortable couch but doesn’t make them pose prettily, which Chaewon appreciates. She zones out for the first few questions- an introduction that Jiwoo gives from memory, statements of their goals on the show that she could say in her sleep, something about where they are now and what music they like and their pet peeves.

“You’re aware that Odd Eye Circle are among the hosts of the show?” the interviewer says, and Chaewon sighs internally. 

Jiwoo, always the most diplomatic, answers. “Yes, we are. It will be exciting to see how they’ve grown over the years, and we know they’ll see us as their equals.”

Hyejoo nods dutifully; Jiwoo continues, anticipating the next question. “When we were both rookies, we were often seen as their primary competition- it was really a question of who would rise up above the other first. Of course we were upset when we no longer had the funds to continue as an active group because of issues within the company that were partially caused by their success, but we have great respect for their talent and have been enjoying our hiatus.” Chaewon translates inside her head:  _ We were both tiny with potential, and then they released Sweet Crazy Love and exploded. Also Brokeberry Creative’s CEO had a drunk bet with Blockbuster Company’s that whoever flopped more in three years would have to pay the other. And because men were dumb and we were foolish, it all seemed like OEC’s fault. _

The interviewer hums in acknowledgement. “And do you still feel that way?”

This is a question she hadn’t anticipated: the interviewers before have only assumed, either that they are forgiving angels who are so innocent that they blame neither the industry nor their competition (Jiwoo), that they’ve been biding their time and waiting for revenge for years, antiheroines of a sort (Hyejoo)

**ping pong**

_goddess au (again), yves/haseul (so far), last edit november 30 2019_

Sooyoung knows she is being used.

She doesn’t care, particularly.

-

It starts like this; she is lost in a sea of people, crushed flower petals dyeing the tips of her hair blood red. There is no entrance, there is no exit. It is just a club, but it feels otherworldly.

Then she appears.

She is a goddess, Sooyoung thinks; must be, for the crowd to part around her, must be, for the flowers adorning her head to be whole, vividly dark in the neon lights of the club.

She stands in front of Sooyoung. The world stops.

“I’m Haseul,” the goddess says. “Ha Sooyoung, right?”

Sooyoung nods.

“Come with me.”

She is stupid, she is sober, and just like the night, she is young; she follows.

-

Haseul takes her through a side door she hadn’t seen before. It looks older than the club; it’s unpainted, something approaching fungus dripping between the slats of maybe-wood. Sooyoung touches it. It’s smooth and cold.

It’s too dark behind the door for Sooyoung to make out the hallway, but when she runs her fingers along the walls, she feels the silhouettes of crystals.

At the end of the hallway, there is a garden.

And oh- it’s  _ beautiful.  _ There are trees seemingly sculpted of jewels, perfect vibrant fruit hanging from their branches. Little white flowers line the edges of cobblestone paths, faintly glowing in the dim light. Haseul takes Sooyoung’s hand (one of them is cold but she doesn’t know who) and leads her down a path. There’s a little gazebo in the middle of the garden, covered with vines bearing pitchers of honeysuckle and pomegranate. In the center, there is a bench.

It crosses Sooyoung’s mind that they have never gone outside. She dismisses it and sits. 

“This isn’t normal,” she says, “is it?”

A small smile graces Haseul’s face. “Depends on how you define normal.”

She laughs. “This is like some medieval cave.”

“Maybe it is,” Haseul teases. “I can take you outside if you want. You looked like you needed an escape. Like you were trying to drown your troubles.”

Sooyoung remembers for the first time in hours why she’d been in the club in the first place. “I was,” she admits, “and out of the troubles and me, only one of us could swim.”

(Sooyoung thinks she might be drowning again in Haseul’s eyes. Are they glowing? She’s imagining that.)

“Well, you have two choices,” Haseul says. “I can hand you a life vest.” 

There’s a dramatic pause. Sooyoung knows what she’s supposed to say.

Doesn’t care.

“What’s the other option?”

“Or I can teach you to breathe underwater.”

She closes her eyes. The memory of the garden flickers behind her eyelids.

“I’ve always been one for the ocean,” she says. 

Haseul grins, full and wide. She leans towards Sooyoung, and she smells of crisp ice. “That’s what I hoped you would say.”

(Afterwards, Sooyoung lies on her back and looks up. There is no ceiling; there is no sky. There is only endless, velvety darkness.)

-

She comes to the club again.

Her roommate, Jinsol, had fussed over her endlessly the last time she’d returned. She didn’t understand that the bruises on Sooyoung’s neck weren’t wounds; they were badges of victory.

They’ve faded now, but Sooyoung wears them with pride anyway.

She isn’t lost this time, not while she has a destination. She clings to the walls of the club, looking for the door, hands tracing smooth walls.

She doesn’t find it.

“Looking for something?”

Sooyoung turns around

**soulmate goose of enforcement**

_what it says on the tin. i don't know what's going on. last edit september 14, 2019_

Sooyoung doesn’t really know what to do with the swan. 

She’d proclaimed them as her favorite animal yesterday because they were beautiful and would bite anyone who came near them- just like Sooyoung, if she does say so herself- but that doesn’t mean she wants one  _ in her room _ . Especially since it seems to have decided that she is its enemy, and she’s just barely managed to close the door on it in time to bandage her injuries. Sooyoung hates blood, and added a bit more gauze than was perhaps necessary. 

She can’t really think of anything to do about it, so she calls Vivi- who usually seems to have advice for her. “Vi, there’s a swan in my room,” Sooyoung starts, and over the sound of Vivi’s “wait, what?” she continues the story. 

At the end of it, Vivi sighs into the phone. “That sounds an awful lot like a soulmate goose, Soo.” 

“But it’s a  _ swan _ ,” Sooyoung says helplessly. 

“Jiwoo had a penguin,” Vivi points out. “It’s not that weird.”

“Yeah, but Jiwoo is just like that and this is just… a goose but prettier.” 

Vivi sighs again. Sooyoung thinks she causes Vivi a lot of sighing. “Just open the door and follow it around. You’ll find your soulmate and it’ll vanish. Easy.”

“But it keeps biting me,” Sooyoung whines. “I don’t want to get hurt more.”

“Then keep it locked in for all I care,” says Vivi with a little more irritation than she means. She usually has no patience for Sooyoung’s refusal to acknowledge simple truths like the fact that when the annoying soulmate bird comes, there’s really no way around the fact that you have to swallow your terror and just get it over with. There’s plenty of time to ignore your soulmate later.

“But I want my room back,” Sooyoung protests, only for Vivi to hang up. The sighs are contagious- Sooyoung sighs as well. “But my room…”

-

Sooyoung takes a nap on the couch to forget her problems, but before too long, she’s rudely awakened by one Kim Jungeun.

Sooyoung and Jungeun share an apartment despite hating each other, and it’s probably all Jiwoo’s fault. The three of them- Jiwoo, Sooyoung’s then-girlfriend, Sooyoung, and Jungeun, Jiwoo’s best friend, had agreed to move in together for six months due to mutual lack of funds/housing, but problems arose. First, Jiwoo and Sooyoung decided to break up- it was entirely peaceful and the two were still close friends- due to Jiwoo’s bizarre soulmate penguin and lack of feelings on both sides. Secondly, Jiwoo moved out to live with her new girlfriend, Heejin, which was all very fine and good for Jiwoo but it left Sooyoung and Jungeun alone together. They’d started off on the wrong foot for some inexplicable reason- maybe jealousy, maybe just bad luck- and it had never gotten better. Jiwoo, under the impression that they were the best of friends, agreed to help pay rent for the remaining three months and flounced off to her happy life.

Sooyoung didn’t  _ blame  _ Jiwoo, she just… didnt like the agreement. It had led to many arguments, the most recent of which was Jungeun shouting at her from the kitchen. “Sooyoung!” she yells. “Why the fuck is there a swan in here?”

“Why the fuck did you open the door?” Sooyoung cries, not bothering to open her eyes. “It was  _ labeled  _ do not open, dangerous animal inside!”

“You stole my bio textbook and I need it for homework,” Jungeun shouts back. “I thought it was just a way to get you to leave me alone.”

“Yeah, well,” Sooyoung says, “there was a dangerous bird in there and if it’s biting you it’s all your fault!”

There’s a slamming sound, and then: “I got it in your room again. Why- oh, don’t tell me this is your soulmate bird. Why couldn’t you have gotten a nice, friendly penguin like Jiwoo?”

“Because Jiwoo is nice and friendly and I’m not,” Sooyoung mutters. 

Jungeun finally comes into view, scratched and panting. Another thing that irritates Sooyoung about Jungeun is how  _ composed  _ she always is, even when something crazy is going on. Jungeun is the opposite of composed now; Sooyoung feels rather triumphant.

**small hopes**

_survival (?) vampire (?) au, yves/vivi/haseul, last edit july 6 2019_

Haseul hates mosquitoes.

She supposes that when she chose to sit next to the pond, she had known there would be bugs and other things attracted to water, but she hadn’t known that they would be so bad. She slaps one off her arm only to see another land in the same spot. Resigned, Haseul lets them drink her blood and give her all sorts of lethal diseases. (Maybe this is an exaggeration because Haseul is a hypochondriac, but it happened to Jungeun- it could happen to her, too.) At least something will get a good meal. 

Haseul isn’t sure why she chose to sit here in the first place when she knows that the water is probably contaminated and there are bugs everywhere, but maybe the water just makes her think of the things she’s lost. 

(There are too many.)  
(She had been fine, even _happy_ with her life, as weird as it had been. Jungeun and Jinsol had been together for a long time and they’d found Haseul and Yeojin wandering around, looking for their cat. They all decided that a group of four was better than a group of two and nobody had ever looked back. She doesn’t know how to begin a life without them. She doesn’t know why she has to.)

Haseul’s internal monologuing is interrupted by a gust of pondwater to the face. Coughing, she immediately spits it out. It tastes like germs and mud. Even when her vision has cleared, it takes her a minute to realize that the splash wasn’t caused by a frog. It was caused by a person.

There’s a  _ girl _ thrashing in the pond.

Haseul’s instincts kick in before her curiosity does, and she runs to the edge of the pond to help fish the girl out. Before she can touch the water, the girl regains her balance and stands up in the water, which apparently isn’t that deep. Glaring at nothing in particular, she makes her way out of the pond until she’s standing in front of Haseul, who has never felt more useless in her life. The girl is pretty and angry and very, very wet. (She has also never felt more intimidated in her life.)

“Um,” says Haseul, helpfully. “You have fish in your hair.” Her terror is not reduced in the slightest.  
The girl continues glaring, but now she seems to be glaring at the ground and not Haseul. “Is there a fish in my hair or are there fish, plural, in my hair?”  
“Fish, singular,” Haseul stammers. “It’s, uh, right there if you want me to-”  
The girl’s glare becomes a slightly milder frown. She turns around and shakes her long, dark hair in the direction of the pond. Two small, grey fish, plural fall out, flopping around on the muddy ground. She shrugs and turns back to Haseul. “You lied,” she says, suddenly grinning like a feral cat. Haseul has lost all ability to speak and stands there, gaping, for a solid minute as the girl finds a stick nearby and ends the misery of the fish, plural. “At least I’ve got dinner now. Thanks.”

Haseul’s various emotional systems clearly have poorly-timed reactions, or perhaps she’s just hungry, because the first thing she says is, “That’s not fair. I pointed out the fish. I should get one.”

“We can share,” the girl offers, which Haseul thinks is surprisingly generous until she adds, “If I don’t end up eating you instead of the fish by accident, that is.”

Haseul isn’t sure if this is a threat or an innuendo, and decides to ignore it. She really doesn't think she can beat the other girl in a fight for the fish. “I’m Haseul.”

“Sooyoung,” the other says. “I’d offer for you to shake my hand, but it’s all muddy.” She frowns at Haseul, who’s begun to root through her bag in a search for her fire kit. “What are you doing?”

“Looking for something to make fire,” Haseul says absently. “To cook the fish.” She looks up in time to see Sooyoung blink. Her expression is almost comical in its confusion. “Were you going to eat yours raw?”

“You weren’t?” Sooyoung asks, clearly puzzled.

“You’ll get all kinds of horrible diseases!” Haseul cries. “How have you survived this long? I’ve known you for twenty minutes and in those twenty minutes, you’ve nearly drowned and almost ate a raw fish!” 

“I have a good metabolism?” Sooyoung tries. Haseul’s eyebrows climb up her forehead. “I never learned to swim?” 

Haseul debates running away from Sooyoung. As pretty as she is, she clearly doesn’t have any basic survival skills. 

Sooyoung seems to sense Haseul’s panic and says with slightly more confidence, “I’m a vampire and we’re kind of like goats in that we eat anything?”

Haseul stares at the other girl for a moment. “Are you just making fun of me?”

“No,” Sooyoung says. “I really was going to eat it raw.”

“But you’re not a vampire, right?” Haseul says without much conviction. It’s not  _ unheard of _ for weird things like vampirism to happen to people- Jinsol had nearly drowned as a kid and now she had webbing between her fingers, but Haseul didn’t know how those were related. According to Jungeun, her childhood friend sometimes turned into a penguin, but that was if she believed Jungeun, which Haseul hadn’t until now. As a general rule, everyone living in the forest just wanted to survive, but sometimes there were weird things in the water that made them different from other people or certain families that had developed a bit of an evolutionary quirk. It wasn’t  _ unheard of _ , but if Sooyoung was telling the truth and not pulling Haseul’s leg, it wasn’t  _ good  _ either. 

Sooyoung appears to be considering. “Sure. No. Let’s go with that.”

Haseul stares at her, skeptical and ready to run.

Sooyoung sighs. “Okay, yeah. Not as scary as it sounds. Mostly I just need to eat a lot of raw meat to get the blood. Please don’t run away, I don’t bite.” She tilts her head and adds, “Unless you want me to.”

Haseul is near the edge of the clearing but snorts out a bit of a laugh at this. She most definitely does (not) want Sooyoung to bite her. Honestly, the other girl seems pretty harmless, if not a bit silly. Haseul is desperate for company and has a tendency to make bad decisions, so she edges carefully back towards Sooyoung. “I’m lonely, so I suppose we can share the fish.” 

Sooyoung beams. “Yay!” Haseul revises her opinion of the other girl from  _ mildly scary  _ to  _ surprisingly friendly. _

Haseul insists on cooking her fish, and soon they have a small fire going. Haseul bites into the fish, which tastes vaguely of crisp apples, and wonders how her life has devolved into sharing fish with a stranger. Just as she’s about to speak up, somehow relatively content with her situation, the bushes rustle. 

Sooyoung sniffs the air, which makes her look like an oversized cat. “Hello?” When nobody responds, she turns to Haseul and says, “I think it’s a deer.”

Haseul is about to ask how she can tell when another pretty stranger bursts out of the bush, breathing heavily. She has pale pink hair and… deer antlers? She also looks vaguely familiar.

Sooyoung blinks at the stranger before Haseul can get a word in edgewise. “So that’s why it smelled like deer.”

The stranger ignores Sooyoung and asks Haseul, “Do I know you?”

“Maybe?” Haseul tries, squinting at her until her features fall together. “You’re Yeojin’s friend, right? Vivi?”

The stranger/Vivi brightens. Haseul remembers her dimly from when they lived in a village, although without the antlers. Sometimes she would babysit Yeojin, and when they left Haseul remembers that the two had kept in touch. “Haseul? Yeojin’s sister?”

Haseul nods. “That’s me.” For a moment she’s back in her childhood home, searching for her sister in a particularly rough game of hide and seek. “Have you seen her?”

“You haven’t?” 

Sooyoung coughs, and she sounds almost possessive, which is a weird thing for Haseul to think about. “I’m Sooyoung. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Are you friends?” Vivi asks. 

Haseul opens her mouth to speak, but Sooyoung gets there first. “Yeah, Haseul’s great. Why are you here?”

Frowning a little bit at Sooyoung, Vivi says, “I lost a group of people I was staying with, and I smelled smoke.”

Sooyoung’s nose crinkles. Haseul looks between the two of them and interjects, “Why don’t we have some food?” 

“We?” Vivi says. “I don’t mean to bother you.”

“You’re not,” Sooyoung admits grudgingly, surprising even Haseul. “It’s probably safer for you two to be in a group instead of on our own. It’s getting dark.”

Haseul glances at the sky. Sooyoung is right- the sun is nowhere in sight, and there’s a faint red glow on the horizon. 

“What about you?” she hears Vivi say. 

Sooyoung shrugs. “I’m tough.”

-

Somehow, they end up staying together for the night, and then the next day and the next day and the next. There’s safety in numbers, Haseul reasons, and although she knows she shouldn’t get attached to anyone else for fear of losing them, too, it’s nice to not be alone for once.

Vivi is shy at first, but she’s quick to warm up. She can make really good jokes out of almost nowhere, and she’s always willing to help. Haseul remembers this about her- what she doesn’t remember is how Vivi is bold, too, unafraid of getting hurt and willing to risk her pride for whatever she deems the greater good.

Sooyoung is a little louder and easily irritated, but to Haseul’s surprise, she knows when to stop. She frequently fights and flirts with Vivi and Haseul, respectively, and neither really know what to do about that. When she’s calm, she’s surprisingly caring and attuned to their feelings.


	2. twice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this is one (1) entire work

**if you only have me**

_sana/mina/nayeon, lighthouse (?) magic (?) au, last edit july 27 2019 (i don't really like this but here we r)_

Mina’s lips are red.

They’re not red like the lipstick Nayeon owns in a million distinct shades, they’re not red like the blood dribbling down Sana’s chin when she bites her lips too hard, they’re not red like the lunar eclipse Nayeon and Sana first kissed under.

They’re red like fresh strawberries and the edges of Rainier cherries, they’re red like spring carnations and wild roses, they’re red like the color of someone’s heart, torn from their chest still-beating.

They are red, and although Nayeon and Sana have the color in abundance, they want to add this specific shade to their collection.

Mina’s lips are red, but Mina herself is almost entirely covered in blue.

-

Nayeon can measure her life and her soulmates in fractions.

Three-quarters of it, she’s known Sana, climbed with her and laughed with her and lived with her in sunlight, pressed against her and gasped with her and loved her under the moonlight. Two-thirds of it, she’s lived in the same redwood tree, branches spiraling up under her feet to create a floor, leaves arching over her head to shield her from rain and sun and anything she doesn’t want to see. For those same two-thirds she’s lived with Jihyo, has come home to the scent of her making coffee or the sound of her talking about her day or just the sight of her best friend, always there with her. 

They belong to her, and she belongs to them.

For approximately a twentieth of her life, not consecutively, she’s known Mina. 

And approximately a hundred and fiftieth, meticulously calculated, of that time has been spent saying goodbye.

Nayeon remembers telling Sana that it’s not fair, that she really only has two people with her all the time and it gets lonely, and she remembers Sana saying, thoughtfully, that before she’d met Nayeon and Jihyo it had been lonely for her too- she couldn’t talk to humans, after all. Nayeon wasn’t human, not even close, but there wasn’t the danger that she’d hurt someone like Sana or the impossibility of traveling like Jihyo, so she didn’t understand, not really- just like she didn’t understand most of the weird unwritten rules that governed life. 

It’s a weird mutual longing that the three of them have, and Nayeon hasn’t been able to successfully explain it to Jihyo, so she doubts anyone else would understand. It’s just obvious to the three of them- obvious in the way Mina stays on the island longer than she says she should, in the way Sana forced herself to learn to swim, in the way Mina is always quick to say  _ you two are a good couple  _ and Sana and Nayeon are always quick to ask if there’s anyone who Mina has her eyes on, although nomadic lifestyles do inhibit the finding of partners and they all know it. In the way they once gave Mina birthday kisses on the cheeks and somehow- it’s unclear whose fault it was- Sana’s missed, and ended up on the mouth.

Nayeon is sure that they’re all tempting fate in some way or another. It can’t really hurt to push their limits a little more, right? 

-

As a general rule, Sana has two modes and two modes only: hungry and content. Hungry doesn’t always- or usually- mean that she wants food, it just means that she wants something- to lean into Nayeon’s arms after a stressful night or to tell Jihyo the worst jokes she can think of or to run through the woods until she finds a deer who doesn’t yet know of the danger she poses to its existence or to be back in the city, anonymous and free to make as many bad decisions as she wants. Content is simpler. Content means that she’s full, and usually- but not always- happy.

Today, Sana is hungry.

She sits on the edge of the rocks, dangling her feet into the water. Jihyo would caution her to be aware of fish biting her toes, but Nayeon would tell her not to worry, that Sana is the one who bites. Sana just knows that there aren’t biting fish in the area, because neither of her friends pay attention to these things.

Which is why it’s weird when she feels a little nibble at her feet. 

Looking down, Sana spots a flash of pale hair vanishing under the waves. “Hello?” she calls.

Someone pops up from under the surface. They have long blond hair and startlingly pale skin that’s almost tinged with blue- Sana remembers Mina’s skin being only a bit darker and wonders if it’s a merperson thing. “Hello,” they chirp back. “Sorry to bother you, but I was just wondering if you’ve seen my friend?”

Sana gets this a lot- the island is relatively deserted despite not being very far from the mainland, probably because it’s surrounded by forest. Whether it’s human travelers or lost merpeople, she always knows how to help people get back to where they belong. “Name, description? I’m Sana, happy to help!”

She beams at Sana. “Her name’s Myoui Mina! Long dark hair, moles, pretty?”

If not for the name, Sana wouldn’t have had much- or anything- to go off of with that description, but minus the moles she would absolutely have described Nayeon the same way, so she understands. But the stranger had given a name, Mina’s name, and alarm bells go off. Mina never mentioned specifically why she was always moving from place to place, but Sana and Nayeon have always known that she’s running from something. So Sana should attempt to lie and say that she doesn’t know Mina, just in case this is the person she’s running from. (A small part of her thinks  _ what if it’s not, what if this is just a friend I’ve never heard about? _ but she manages to mostly shut that part down.)

“I haven’t seen someone with that description recently…?” Sana trails off, hoping she’ll get the message and give her name. 

“Oh!” the stranger says. “It’s Momo.” She pauses and frowns. “Recently? Have you seen Mina not-recently?”

“I, uh,” Sana stutters. She’s not a liar- that’s Nayeon’s job- but she feels like she has to try. For Mina. “I don’t know this Mina but I’ve seen pretty people with moles here?” she tries, wincing. The best lies are formed from a kernel of truth, according to Nayeon, but this lie is less a cleverly-disguised kernel of truth in a tub of popcorn and more a popped kernel of truth. 

“Great!” Momo says brightly. “Do you mind if I stay here for a bit to see if she drops by? We haven’t talked in ages and I have something important to tell her.”

Sana promptly begins to stutter again and Momo pouts. “I can help with your lighthousing if it’s needed?”

Lighthousing is absolutely not a word, but Sana isn’t about to tell Momo this. “No, you don’t have to, it’s fine,” she says out of habit before she registers that she’s basically said yes to someone who’s maybe Mina’s mortal enemy staying on her island.

“I insist, really,” Momo says, and she pulls herself up onto the rocks. Instead of a tail like Mina’s, something that Sana is used to, she has legs, clad in a seaweed skirt and as icy-pale as the rest of her.

Sana starts to gape again. 

“Does anyone else live here?” Momo asks innocently like she hasn’t just defied half the laws of nature Sana knows.

“My girlfriend! Nayeon!” Sana blurts. “I’ll, uh, go tell her that someone’s here. Stay right there! Please!”

Momo blinks after her.


	3. pristin/hinapia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i haven't looked for word counts yet but this is probably the longest

**untitled**

_slice of life (?), eunwoo/yaebin/minkyung, last edit unknown because it's in a 51 page document where i put everything_

Technically, it starts when Eunwoo buys roller skates for three dollars.

So here she is, a few months later, regretting those three dollars. Eunwoo blinks up at the sky for a long moment. Everything hurts Yaebin’s concerned face hovers in her vision. “Eunwoo? Eunwoo, are you okay? Oh my god I think I killed her.”

“You didn’t kill me,” Eunwoo manages to push out. “This is entirely my fault.”

Yaebin pauses. “True. Ha, loser. Are you okay? Please don’t be dead.”

Marveling at Yaebin’s change of expression, Eunwoo attempts to push herself off the ground. She immediately falls back down with a little yelp of pain. “I think I broke my leg,” she says. 

“Oh, dear,” Yaebin says. She sounds like a fussy grandmother. “Oh, dear,” Yaebin repeats, which is the last thing Eunwoo hears before she blacks out.

-

When Eunwoo wakes up, she’s staring into the face of a very pretty girl.

“Am I dead?” she asks. “Is this heaven? Are you an angel?”

“No, no, yes,” the girl lists off. “I’m your nurse. You have a concussion and a broken leg.”

“Oh.”

“Can you describe what happened? I’ve already heard from your friend, but I’d like to hear your version of the story.”

Eunwoo tries to remember. “I think… I think we were walking. And Yaebin dared me to roller skate along the side of the bridge, but then the roller skates broke because they were three fucking dollars, and I fell off.”

“Oh, dear,” says the nurse/angel. 

“You should meet Yaebin sometimes. She says that a lot too.” Eunwoo pauses. “Am I high?”

“I hope not,” the other girl says. “Do you and your friend Yaebin do this a lot?”   
“Yes,” Eunwoo says. “I pushed her off the roof yesterday.”   
“Of course you did,” the nurse/angel sighs. Eunwoo squints at her name tag. It says something like… Min- Minnie? That looks wrong, but Eunwoo decides to stick with it. Maybe-Minnie writes something down, and turns back to Eunwoo. “The doctor will be with you in just a moment.”

Eunwoo tries to say something about angels, but the pretty nurse is already leaving.

(“Your nurse was pretty,” says Yaebin, an hour later, perching on the edge of Eunwoo’s bed. “I can’t believe you can’t text me.”   
“Me either,” Eunwoo says, addressing the second statement before the first. “According to the doctor, it’ll hurt my eyes. And yeah, she was. She looked like she was our age, too.”   
Yaebin perks up. “Did you get her name?”   
Eunwoo squints and tries to remember. “Min- Minnie, maybe?”   
Yaebin nods, an alarmingly serious expression on her face. “I need you to get hurt more often.”   
Eunwoo attempts to hit Yaebin and misses. “No!”)   
-

It’s about a week before Eunwoo is better enough for her roommate, Kyungwon, to let her go to the nearby store on her own. She limps down the street in crutches, too stubborn to ask for a ride from Kyungwon- or worse, Yaebin. Her phone buzzes, but she ignores it- probably Siyeon trying to get her to help her on the upcoming math test. Eunwoo is, in theory, far too cool to be friends with high schoolers, but Siyeon has decided that they are friends and has refused to believe anything else, and Eunwoo really isn’t that cool, so she accepts the title of ‘friend’ and, sometimes, Siyeon’s frequent attempts at bribery. 

When she actually gets to the store, she pushes the door open with a crutch and tries to think about what she wants to get. Eunwoo really only wanted to come here so she could prove that she was well enough to do something, and also because she was hungry.

“Can I help you?” A voice cuts into her monologue, and Eunwoo realizes she’s been standing in one spot for at least a minute. She turns around and sees yet another irritatingly pretty girl staring at her. That voice sounds familiar, too… 

Before Eunwoo can come to the realization, the cashier sighs. “Oh god, are you the one who fell off the bridge a week ago because your friend dared you?”   
“That tone of voice makes me sound like an idiot,” Eunwoo automatically retorts. “I’m only sort of an idiot.”   
She rolls her eyes. “You’re a pretty idiot, so it’s okay.” There’s an awkward silence in which Eunwoo tries to process the fact that someone just called her pretty before the cashier says, “I’m Minkyung, by the way.”   
Okay. Not Minnie. Makes sense. “Eunwoo.”   
“Are you going to buy anything?”    
Eunwoo grabs at the first thing she sees, a box of jelly beans, and adds a bottle of root beer for good measure, and watches Minkyung’s eyebrows steadily rise. “Sure. Yes. I’m buying these. I thought you were a nurse, why do you work here?”   
Minkyung scans the jelly beans. “I’m in medical school. I just volunteer as a nurse- I need to pay the bills somehow.”   
“Oh,” says Eunwoo. “I wish I was going to college for something interesting like that.”   
Minkyung makes a face. “Believe me, it’s not as cool as it sounds. Mostly a lot of hard work and not nearly enough dissections.”

Eunwoo’s stomach automatically flips at the thought of dissections. “At least you’re doing something.”   
“True,” Minkyung agrees. Eunwoo pays, and almost as an afterthought she adds, “Want a ride home? It can’t be easy to walk all this way in crutches.”   
It wasn’t easy, but Eunwoo’s mom always said not to accept rides from strangers. “Don’t you have to work here?”   
“It’s technically Yewon’s shift. She’s just busy trying to stop my friend Kyungwon from fighting on Twitter in the back.”   
“Sounds fair,” Eunwoo starts, but pauses. “Kyungwon? Kang Kyungwon? I know a Kyungwon. She’s my roommate and she’s annoying.”   
Minkyung fishes out her phone and shows Eunwoo a photo. “This Kyungwon? She always complains about her roommate.”   
“Yeah, that Kyungwon,” Eunwoo says, putting the jelly beans in her bag and opening the root beer. “Hey, is the offer to drive me open still open?”   
“Sure,” says Minkyung. “I’m bored here anyway.”

-

They arrive at Yaebin’s apartment in almost no time. Minkyung, apparently, is both friendly (mostly) and funny- it feels like Eunwoo has known her forever. (Minkyung makes her try a jelly bean, and when Eunwoo spits it out with an exclamation of “Gross! What’s this?” the other girl just laughs and laughs until Eunwoo notices that she’d bought Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans.)

When Eunwoo knocks at Yaebin’s door, Yaebin says, muffled through the door, “Eunwoo! I thought you couldn’t see me because crutches.”   
“I got a ride home,” Eunwoo says.    
Yaebin opens the door and squints at Minkyung, who waves sheepishly. “ _ Eunwoo _ . Don’t ride with strangers!”   
“She’s not a stranger,” Eunwoo protests. “She’s a nurse. And she knows Kyungwon.”   
“Kyungwon knows everybody.”   
“She knows Kyungwon better than I do.”   
“Kyungwon knows your third cousin twice removed better than you do.”   
“Jinsol is a  _ baby _ and she’s my second cousin once removed-”   
Minkyung coughs. “I’m right here. And I promise I’m not a weirdo.”   
“Oh hey,” says Yaebin, apparently just having come to the realization that she knows Minkyung. “You’re the pretty nurse that helped Eunwoo after she nearly died.”

“I didn’t nearly die!” Eunwoo protests, but Minkyung only seems to have eyes for Yaebin.

“And you’re the one that nearly killed her.”   
“At your service,” Yaebin says, waving. “Minnie, right?”   
“Minkyung,” Eunwoo and Minkyung say at the same time. 

There’s a small awkward silence before Yaebin says, brightly, “Do you want to come inside for tea, Minerva?”   
“It’s-” Minkyung starts, then shakes her head. “Sure! It’s nice to meet you… Yena, right?”   
Yaebin coughs. “Yeah. Sure. Let’s go inside.” 

She disappears through the doorway, and Minkyung helps Eunwoo hoist herself up. “What’s going on with her?”   
“She’s probably flirting,” Eunwoo says before she realizes it. “She called me Eunbin for a solid week in senior year.”   
“Oh,” says Minkyung, sounding oddly disappointed. “You two are together?”   
“Not anymore,” Eunwoo admits. “We sort of mutually agreed to break up because we thought we’d be going to separate colleges, but then we ended up going to the same place and now we don’t really know what we’re doing.” She coughs, trying to get past the weird lump in her throat. “Anyway, you have my blessing. If you want.”

Minkyung looks at Eunwoo oddly, but holds open the door. “After you, I guess.”

-

Eunwoo finds herself in the same position she’d been in a few weeks ago- lying down on her back, staring up. Now she’s on her bed and trying to count all the dog pictures Kyungwon had put on the ceiling, instead of on some random sidewalk about to pass up. “Hey, Kyungwon? Do you know a Kim Minkyung?”   
“Yeah, she’s my best friend,” Kyungwon says, sitting up for the first time in a few hours. “Why?”   
“No reason,” Eunwoo says. After a pause, she asks, “Kyungwon? Is it normal to sort of like two people at once?”

Kyungwon takes out glasses from nowhere and puts them on her nose after a disturbing about of polishing. “I’d say so. Is this related to Minkyung? She’s gay, by the way.” Kyungwon stares at nothing for a moment then adds, “So is Yaebin. But you’d know that better than me.”   
Eunwoo wonders, not for the first time, if Kyungwon is psychic. “Let’s say you’re right. Then what?”   
Typing out something on her phone, Kyungwon looks up. “You Eun-woo them.”   
“Not funny, didn’t laugh,” Eunwoo mutters. “What did you do?”   
“I scheduled lunch for the four of us,” Kyungwon says brightly. “It’ll be nice for my friends to meet, anyway. Next Thursday. Be ready.”   
Kyungwon falls back into lying down, and Eunwoo resists the temptation to ask if she’s asleep. She probably is, knowing Kyungwon.

-

Next Thursday arrives, and with minimal panic about what to wear, Eunwoo is ready to leave. She opens the door of their room only to find a large bouquet of roses sitting outside the door with a note attached. The note reads  _ Dear Eunwoo, I have suddenly become very sick and must go over to Sungyeon’s to see if she’ll make me Froot Loop soup! Enjoy your date. - Kyungwon _

Fucking Kyungwon.

“You were supposed to  _ drive _ me,” Eunwoo whines to nobody in particular. Turning the note over, she reads, in irritatingly neat handwriting,  _ P.S. I asked Minkyung to pick you up!  _

With almost comical timing, there’s a knock at the apartment door. Eunwoo opens it a crack. “Hello?”   
“Hello!” Minkyung chirps from outside. “Where’s Kyungwon? I thought I was picking the two of you up.”   
“ _ Kyungwon, _ ” Eunwoo says, annoyed, “has suddenly become very sick and apparently scheduled all of this without my knowledge.”   
“Oh,” Minkyung sighs, “that sounds like her. What are those roses for?”   
“I have no idea,” Eunwoo admits. “Either she’s trying to woo me or she’s trying to get me to woo you two.” Once again, she curses her mouth. “I mean- I need to stop talking sometimes, ugh.”   
Minkyung just smiles at her, a little shyly. “I mean. I wouldn’t  _ mind _ , per se. I’m sure Yaebin wouldn’t either.”   
“Then have a rose,” Eunwoo’s mouth continues without her permission. “Or seven. There are like twenty here.” She claps a hand over her mouth. “I mean, uh… let’s get going. Do you want to carry the roses?”   
Minkyung’s smile grows. “You’re cute. Sure.”   
The drive is mostly quiet. Eunwoo, halfway through, suddenly says, “Did you call me cute?”

“Yup,” Minkyung says. “Quick, compliment me. This is getting unbalanced.”   
Eunwoo pauses and tries to think of a compliment. “Uh. You have very nice eyebrows?”   
“Thank you.”   
The rest of the drive is silent. When they arrive at the lunch place, Yaebin is already there, which is rare for her, and dressed in a very pretty blue dress. She squints when she sees the two of them. “Where’s Kyungwon?”   
“Kyungwon-” Eunwoo starts, but Minkyung finishes for her. 

“-set us up. I think she wanted this to be a date.”   
“Oh,” says Yaebin, unsurprised. “All three of us? I thought you were in on it, Minhee.”   
Minkyung doesn’t even bother to correct Yaebin. “I have more common sense than that. Also, I’d be jealous.”   
Eunwoo blinks. “I’m sorry, what?”   
“I thought you didn’t like me,” says Yaebin. Eunwoo isn’t sure who she’s talking to. “It seemed like you just liked Eunwoo. And Eunwoo didn’t notice me flirting with her for like three years.”

“You were flirting with me?”   
“What did you think I meant when I asked you if you wanted to sleep with me?”   
“A sleepover? I don’t fucking know,” Eunwoo says, frustrated. “Am I just really oblivious?”   
“Yes,” Minkyung and Yaebin say at the same time.    
“I thought you were flirting with me!” Minkyung protests. “You asked me if I was an angel.”   
“You said yes!”   
“ _ That was flirting _ !”

**seeds on brown**

_i don't know. last edit december 31, 2019_

1.

Ice spreads gently along a creek, a thin sheet of cold covering the rush of winter waters. Nearby, the forest glitters with snow.

If you’re watching closely, you can see the exact place where the fingers of ice stop- only to be replaced by bright, clear burbles.

A girl walks along the creek. She reaches for the ice, but they cannot touch.

-

Minkyung is cold.

She’s not sure how she got here, she’s not sure where she is, and maybe the frostbite is setting in, but the cold seems to be seeping in her bones and freezing her from the inside out. Dizzily, she wonders if blood can freeze.

Move. She has to move.

“Help,” she croaks out, but only the frozen forest can hear her.

It is New Year’s Eve, and Minkyung is going to die before she reaches the new decade.

-

The decade doesn’t matter much to Kyungwon. This is her third stuck here tending this forest, and after a while the time blurs together.

She misses the feel of snow. It’s tempting to try to break the boundary 

**waiting room**

_dead people au (?), last edit november 30 2019_

Minkyung taps her foot anxiously on what she thinks- well, what she hopes- is concrete. It's probably some other weird material like obsidian or bedrock. (A voice in Minkyung's head that sounds suspiciously like Kyungwon whispers, 

_ This is the afterlife, not Minecraft, dummy _ . 

Imaginary-Kyungwon is even more annoying than real-Kyungwon- there's no way to get rid of her.)

God, Minkyung misses her friends.

(Maybe this isn't the best time to be calling in God.)

The woman in front of her clears her throat, and Minkyung snaps to attention. "Yes? Ma'am?" She's not one for honorifics, or even formality, but she figures it can't hurt here.

She shuffles her papers, looks over her shoulder to consult with some invisible jury. "Kim Minkyung," she says, drawing Minkyung's name out for maybe a little bit too long. "We regret to inform you-"  _ that you have not been accepted into Seoul University _ , Minkyung's anxiety autocomplete finishes. The woman's words, however, are harsher. "-that you have been found guilty of a number of crimes, including but not limited to: theft, blackmail, making other people miserable, poking your nose where it does not belong, and breaking hearts. However, these crimes are not serious enough to deny you entrance into the afterlife. You will be required to do three hundred years of community service, and if at the end of that time we feel that you've learned your lesson, you are welcome to take up residence."

Minkyung's mind blanks.

Three hundred years of community service. That's almost fifteen times as long as she's been alive, let alone done any work. She knows that maybe taking up a life of crime wasn't the best idea, but she never expected this.

The woman seems to be waiting for her, expectantly. She clears her throat again. Minkyung doesn't even think she's a woman- her skin is a little too grey for that- but she's very pretty nonetheless. "Is there- no way I can make up for this now?"

"I'm afraid not," says the woman. "My most sincere apologies," she adds in a slightly fake voice.

Minkyung licks her lips nervously. "Are you sure about that...?" She trails off, leaving opportunity for the woman to fill in the blank with her name.

"Nayoung," she says. Minkyung had expected something more demonic and dramatic. Something like Lilith or Lucifer. Hell, she knows a dozen Nayoungs back home.

It's comforting, until Nayoung adds, "And yes. Yes, I'm very sure. Community service won't be that much of a trial. You'll survive."

There's a faint snicker from behind her, possibly the invisible jury, and a mutter that sounds something like, "there's no survival here, we're all already dead."

"Silence to the jury," says Nayoung. 

Minkyung can't see the jury, which is annoying, but she can definitely see the wad of paper they toss in her direction. It misses horribly and hits Nayoung, who reads something and frowns. “Silence to the jury and silence to Jung Eunwoo in particular.”


	4. oh my girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this also has one (1) work. yes it implies the existence of a binho flower sad au 1.0 but i didn't like that enough to post

**binho flower sad au 2.0**

_yeah. last edit february 22_

Yoobin has known her new roommate for a total of five hours, which is more than enough time to figure out that Jiho is exceptionally weird.

She doesn’t have many things and insists on sleeping without any blankets despite the fact that their apartment has no heating, unloads three large containers of cookies into the cabinet and insists that Yoobin label them as hers, and seems to own a total of one pair of socks. Yoobin’s old roommate, Hyejin, had been very nice and normal and made hot chocolate for her sometimes; the only reason Jiho is even here is that they’re family friends or something. Yoobin just hopes she doesn’t snore.

“What do you study?” Yoobin asks awkwardly. When Jiho gives her a blank look, she clarifies. “Like, at college. I’m majoring in political science.”

Jiho makes a face. “Boring. I dropped out last year.”

“Oh,” says Yoobin, baffled. “Do you have a job, or…”

“I tutor people,” Jiho says, pulling out her phone and showing Yoobin a really ugly website labeled  _ Kim Jiho Tutoring.  _ “I’m very well rated.”

Yoobin can’t tell if this girl is very smart or very stupid. “That’s… nice, I guess.”

“I’m also training to be an idol,” Jiho adds brightly, switching to her photos app and thrusting what seems to be a teaser image in Yoobin’s face. “I debut in October.”

“Good for you?”

“It is,” Jiho agrees. “Do you like pizza? We should order something to celebrate.”

Yoobin decides to forgive Jiho her oddness; pizza is important. “Sure. What toppings do you like?”

“Tomato, onion, spinach- I’m vegetarian, by the way- pineapple, mushroom-”

Yoobin blinks. “What did you say?”

“The bit about being vegetarian?” Jiho tilts her head, hair falling towards Yoobin’s face. “I’m not vegan, I love cheese-”

“No, the pineapple,” she says, alarmed.

“Do you have a problem with that?” Jiho asks, defensive. 

“No,” Yoobin lies, “it’s fine. Uh- let’s just get cheese.”

Later, Yewon texts her.

**best friend:** hows the new roommate 

**yoobin:** eventful

**best friend:** thats not a person describing word

**yoobin:** at this point i couldn’t care less

-

Life settles into a comfortable rhythm; Jiho is gone much of the day while Yoobin studies despite the fact that it’s summer, goes to work, and eats Jiho’s cookies. Yewon vanishes occasionally and Yoobin sometimes suspects she’s joined a cult, but one day she goes over to the younger girl’s house and there are at least three cats wandering around. Yoobin supposes it’s good that she’s found a hobby.

Yoobin and Jiho don’t talk much, but they eat dinner together at least once a week out of habit. Yoobin puts on a baking show afterwards and one day Jiho sticks around before going to shower. She sits down next to Yoobin and squints at the contestants. “Haeyoon gets eliminated this episode.”

“Don’t spoil it,” Yoobin protests. 

“I haven’t even watched it,” Jiho says absently, “I can just tell. Look, her pie crust isn’t baked enough.”

“I bet it’s going to be Gyuri,” Yoobin argues even though Jiho is clearly right. “Nobody likes rhubarb.”

“I like rhubarb,” Jiho cries, indignant. “You’re just tasteless.”

“Of course you do,” mutters Yoobin, watching as Haeyoon applies rather too much meringue. 

“Other people like it too,” Jiho continues. “My friend Shiah-” She interrupts herself with a bout of coughs, putting a hand over her mouth. When she removes it after what’s at least a minute, Yoobin spots red on her hand. “Sorry about that. I’m sick.”

“You should really get that checked out,” Yoobin says, alarmed.

“I’m training to be an idol, I really can’t,” Jiho replies, as if that’s any kind of meaningful excuse. “It’ll be fine.”

Yoobin doesn’t really know what to say to that, so they sit in silence and finish the episode. Jiho is right- the judges love Gyuri’s rhubarb pie.

-

[timeskip]  
  


Jiho comes home late that day, feet worn from practicing her dance. Yoobin is, coincidentally, awake doing homework, and Jiho brightens when she sees her roommate. “They say we sold a hundred copies,” she tells Yoobin, rather dejectedly. “It’ll go up, though. Did you buy one? I know you’re a broke college student and all, but-”

Yoobin, who has been waiting for this very question, produces a copy from under her scarf. The cover features Jiho smiling into a white frame; flowers surround her. “It’s a nice song- nicer now that I’m not hearing it sung in the shower.”

Jiho laughs and produces a pen from nowhere, scribbling something on the album’s edge. “There, now it’s signed,” she says. “You’re the special one in a hundred people.”

Yoobin decides not to tell Jiho that she’d bought five, put up a sign promoting it, and coerced Yewon into getting two more. She may be a broke college student, but she’s determined to be the most dedicated broke college student in the world. 


	5. crossovers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i don't know what i was doing with either of these

**i don't know what i'm doing**

_podcast (?) au, bvndit/loona/oh my girl/fromis_9_

[CLICK]

**JIHO**

Statement of Kim Jiho regarding the founding of the Paranormal Club. Recording November 12-

**SOOYOUNG**

We are not calling it the Paranormal Club. That’s lame. It doesn’t even alliterate. Where’s the spark?

**SIMYEONG**

We don’t have the funding to be a club. We are recording in a broom closet. We don’t need a name and this is-

**JIHO (overlapping)**

A bad idea, yeah, yeah I get it. If we don’t investigate, who will? There have been a bizarre amount of supernatural occurrences in our community and-

**SIMYEONG**

Why are you so into community these days? And magic and all that? Did a cult adopt you?

**SOOYOUNG**

I knew we shouldn’t have let a sophomore in. She’s so tiny and cynical.

**SIMYEONG**

I’m taller than you.

**JIHO**

Silence. I’m recording. 

Anyway. Does anyone have any objections to the status f this club? Before our first official meeting next week.

**SOOYOUNG**

I object to the name. We’ll get sued. We’re not an official club.

**SIMYEONG**

That’s not how this works. Colleges don’t sue people. [Pause.] We do need a different name though. Supernatural Investigations by Two Nerds and a Suffering Innocent? That’s a bit wordy.

**SOOYOUNG**

Normal People and a Baby?

**SIMYEONG**

Hey!

**JIHO**

I still like the Paranormal Club. It has a ring to it.

**SOOYOUNG**

I told you we can’t be a club. People will think they can join.

**JIHO**

Paranormal Detectives? Supernatural Sleuths? Magical Mysteries- no, that sounds like a crystal shop. The Investigators of the Unknown? [groans] We can just be unnamed for now.

**SIMYEONG**

Isn’t the last one a song from Frozen?

**JIHO**

Fuck the legal stuff, let’s just- Why are we still recording?

[CLICK]

**i (windy day)**

[CLICK]

**SOOYOUNG**

No, no, sit down over there- you’re our first client, we want you to be comfortable. Would you like tea? 

**SIMYEONG**

[muttered]  _ I  _ want tea. Why doesn’t Sooyoung offer me tea?

**JIHEON**

I don’t have to pay for this, right? You said client. I’m a high school junior working at Wendy’s, I can’t afford- whatever this is.

**SOOYOUNG**

Donations are always appreciated, but you don’t have to pay. I just couldn’t think of a better word, I guess.

**JIHEON**

That’s good. [to Jiho] Why am I being recorded? We didn’t even start yet.

**JIHO**

Oh, it’s just in case. 

**JIHEON**

In case of what?

**JIHO**

… 

**JIHO**

Anyway! Feel free to begin. Uh, at the beginning, naturally.

**JIHEON**

Okay. Well- I like to play Pokemon Go.

**SIMYEONG**

It’s 2020. Do people still do that?

**JIHO (overlapping)**

Wait, I forgot-

[There’s a pause. Simyeong coughs.]

**JIHO**

Anyway. Let’s try again. [to nobody in particular] Statement of Baek Jiheon, junior at Orchard High. Recorded by Kim Jiho the 15th of November, 2020. 

**JIHEON (statement)**

Okay, so as I was saying before I got interrupted, I like to play Pokemon Go. It’s like a thing that me and my girlfriend have- ex girlfriend now, I guess. We used to meet up at a cafe at the end of the week to see who caught better Pokemon. I wanted to finish my Poxedex before her. [Pause.] I guess I still do. Kind of odd given the circumstances, but I’m competitive. I should probably stick to the subject, right? So I was at home one day, bored out of my mind, and I saw this Pokemon on the map. It was in the middle of this completely random cornfield- not anywhere where Pokemon usually spawn. I wouldn’t usually have gone, but I was bored and I thought maybe Minjung hacked it in as a joke or something, so I decided to go out and check.

**SIMYEONG**

What Pokemon was it?

**JIHEON**

That’s funny. I… don’t remember.

**SOOYOUNG**

[skeptical] You don’t remember?

**JIHEON**

It wasn’t real. Not that Pokemon are real, but- it wasn’t even one of the new ones. It looked like.. a mockery of a human. 

**SIMYEONG**

[sarcastically] Lovely.

**JIHEON**

Anyway. So I took my sister’s car and drove down to the field, and it was a rainy day. 

**lesbians squared**

_loona/twice, gay people au??? idk i don't like this. last edit september 20, 2019_

Jiwoo doesn’t  _ know  _ Son Chaeyoung, but she’s definitely heard of her. It starts in tenth grade, when Jiwoo’s friend Jungeun calls her after school. Jungeun and many of Jiwoo’s other friends play on the softball team, apparently determined to preserve their reputation as lesbian stereotypes, but Jiwoo, lazy, only comes to their games.    
“There’s this girl,” Jungeun says. Jiwoo sighs. Many of Jungeun’s calls begin this way. Jiwoo has been telling her for years to grow a spine and ask any of her many crushes out, but Jungeun never listens. It’s not that hard, it really isn’t. “From softball.”   
“Do I know her?” Jiwoo asks absently, doodling on the paper next to her.    
“No, no,” Jungeun reassures, “it’s someone on the other team. They make us have this whole after-game discussion so that we have no bad feelings. And she kept… she kept talking to me! And smiling at me! And she’s really pretty!”   
“Do you know her name?” Jiwoo asks. She has a seven-step plan for dealing with Jungeun’s infatuations- it surprises her that her friend hasn’t caught on to the fact that most of her questions are a script. Jiwoo loves her friend, but she knows exactly where each and every crush is going, and that the most she can do at this point is to nudge Jungeun in the right direction and hope she doesn’t fall too hard.

“No,” Jungeun moans, then brightens. “I have her number! I know that’s what you’re going to ask next.”   
Okay, so maybe she’d spoken too soon about Jungeun’s obliviousness. “How did you get her number?”   
“She volunteered to get me a piece of cake,” Jungeun says. (Jiwoo reconsiders her decision to not join the team. She really likes cake.) “And when I was about to throw the plate away, there was a number on the bottom of it. With ‘text me’ and a little heart.”   
“So text her,” Jiwoo says. “Jungeun, that’s clearly flirting.”

“But what should I text? I don’t know anything about her other than that she’s really pretty and she has short blonde hair and..”   
Jiwoo sights. “Ask for her name, to start with...”

Jungeun texts her later.  _ it’s Chaeyoung!!! Son Chaeyoung. the girl who gave me her number. _

Ten minutes later:  _ she uses a lot of heart emojis _

So when Jungeun and Chaeyoung briefly go out, only to break up over the fact that they are on different softball teams, after all, and the rivalry is apparently too hard for them, Jiwoo knows what name to remember.

She’s going to be needing it again.

-

The next time it happens, Jiwoo is in junior year and it’s Heejin who’s fallen for Chaeyoung. Heejin is younger than both of them, and Jiwoo can’t help but worry more for her friend’s heart. Both of them are in the art program, which Jiwoo supposes is how they met. There’s no rivalry this time and Heejin is slightly more experienced than Jungeun with love, but Jiwoo still worries.

Heejin prefers texting. 

_ is this flirting or being friendly? [video attachment] _

How did Heejin get a video- never mind. Jiwoo isn’t going to question it. Heejin is… chaotic.

In the video, a short girl with dark hair reaching down her back taps Heejin’s shoulder. “Heekkie! Your art is so cute!”    
“Thank you,” Heejin’s voice says. “Yours is really good too, Chaeyoung unnie.”

(So they’re friendly, Jiwoo notes. Good to know.)

Chaeyoung lowers her voice. “You know what else is cute?”

“What?” Heejin stammers.

“You, Heekkie!” Chaeyoung grins in Heejin’s direction. “I have to go, Mina’s waving at me. Text me!” She blows Heejin a kiss.

_ Wow, this Chaeyoung girl is cheesy _ , Jiwoo thinks.

Heejin clearly thinks otherwise. “Chae-” she begins, sounding a little starstruck, and then the video cuts off.

_ it’s flirting. good luck _ Jiwoo texts Heejin. She thinks her friend has the potential to become good at this, unlike Jungeun, but she still has a long, long way to go.

_ what should i do???  _ Jiwoo can  _ hear  _ Heejin panicking through the text.

_ Go out with Hyunjin because she’s been pining after you for years and save your energy,  _ Jiwoo thinks. She texts Heejin something entirely different.  _ text her. she asked u to. itll be fine _

And then she texts Jungeun later, because she knows where this is going:  _ what’s chaeyoung’s number?  _

So when Heejin and Chaeyoung go out and break up, lasting slightly longer than Chaeyoung and Jungeun had, Jiwoo knows who to text about it.

**jiwoo:** _ this is jiwoo. jungeun’s friend. heejin’s friend. _

**jiwoo:** _ stop breaking their hearts _

**chaeyoung:** _ how did you get my number? _

**chaeyoung:** _ we just didn’t work out. calm down _

**jiwoo:** _ jungeun was really hurt. heejin’s been bingewatching her least favorite drama _

**chaeyoung:** _ are you warning me to stay away from them? really? you couldn’t be a threatening older friend if you tried _

**jiwoo:** _ well, at least i’m not a dwarf _

**chaeyoung:** _ stfu, i’ve seen pics of you. we’re the same height _

**chaeyoung:** _ and i can date whoever i want. it’s not your business  _

Chaeyoung is right, Jiwoo realizes. It is a little creepy of her to be protective like this.

(But still. She doesn’t want her friends to get hurt.)

After a moment of thought, she texts back. 

**jiwoo:** _ whomever _

**chaeyoung:** _? _

**jiwoo:** _ whomever. not whoever _

Chaeyoung reads it, doesn’t reply.

-

It would stop there, except at 3 in the morning Jiwoo is still awake because her latest girlfriend, Tzuyu, has broken up with her and the person she’d normally go to, Haseul, is gone somewhere so she’s scrolling through YouTube and trying to forget about life.

And then a random text pops up on her screen. From Chaeyoung, of all people.

**chaeyoung:** jihyoo i feels o bad ksjgdg

Who the hell is Jihyo? Chaeyoung keeps typing, though.

**chaeyoung:** ithought heejin knew sh eliked some1 elsse n it wasnt fai r to kepe leadign me on so i broke up w: her but her freibd says sges hurt i fidnt meanto

**chaeyoung:** am i breaking heats 

**chaeyoung:** hearts

**chaeyoung:** ij ust wanted agf 

Jiwoo wants to ignore her, but her conscience can’t permit it. She debates her options- one, she can tell Chaeyoung who she is and offer no advice on the situation. Objectively, this is what she  _ should  _ do: they’re far from friends, it’s late, and she shouldn’t lead Chaeyoung on. Two, she can wait until the morning, when Chaeyoung will be less tired/possibly drunk and will definitely realize her mistake. She can easily pretend to have been asleep. (Jiwoo checks her phone and read receipts are on, so that’s a no.) 

Or three, she can just comfort Chaeyoung now, because it seems like she needs it. She doesn’t need to pretend she’s Jihyo, whoever Jihyo is- she could just not mention her real identity.

They’re not friends. They don’t like each other. Hell, they barely know each other.

But Jiwoo thinks she’s just too soft for her own good, and maybe she wishes someone would comfort her too and maybe Chaeyoung deserves the same.

So she texts back.

**jiwoo:** i’m sure it hurts for her now but maybe you helped her realize something

**jiwoo:** you’re not a horrible person

**jiwoo:** you just wanted a girlfriend

Chaeyoung texts back almost immediately.

**chaeyoung:** thnak you

**jiwoo:** are you drunk? 

(She feels like she has to be at least a  _ little  _ responsible here. Chaeyoung is older, or at least she thinks so, but that doesn’t mean she can’t make sure the other girl is okay.)

**chaeyoung:** just a lil bit

**chaeyoung:** i fried fermenting fruit jiuce a few dys ago i dodnt think id actally use it

**jiwoo:** and you’re safe at home?

**Author's Note:**

> same author as this series (i don't remember how to do hyperlinks sorry) https://archiveofourown.org/series/2007859 in case anyone was wondering


End file.
